The four-year ProMine project nearing completion has successfully carried out 4D modelling for the mining industry, created new nano products from minerals, surveyed European raw material resources and recorded them in a minerals database, and developed ecologically efficient mineral processing methods and information management.

The nano-silica product developed within the ProMine project uses the waste and by-products of the mining industry as a raw material. Nano-silica can be used to improve the properties of cement in concrete structures, for example, making the concrete lighter and more durable, yet with lower costs.

The project succeeded in creating high-quality, wear-resistant colour pigments from the mineral schwertmannite. Schwertmannite can also be utilised in water purification processes to remove arsenic, for example.

Manufacturers of jet turbines are interested in the new rhenium compounds resistant to high temperatures.

The tangible results of the project include approximately ten patents that the companies participating in the project have already applied for or been granted.

The EUR 18 million EU project involved 30 partners from 11 countries. The main results of the project will be presented in the final seminar, to be held in Levi from 23 to 25 April with 130 participants from 18 countries.

Geologists always faced a difficult task when modeling deep geological structures due to a lack of continuous data collected from the subsurface. The Institut National Poly-technique de Lorraine (INPL), has addressed this issue within the ProMine project and is publishing a Self Tutorial Training Course in 3 & 4D Modeling to better equip students, geo-practitioners and geoscientists to meet the mining challenges of today.

The Self Tutorial explains how 3 & 4D modeling is a tool which provides an optimum visualization and a more in-depth appraisal of mineral resources. Case-studies from around Europe, including also from the four belts considered in ProMine, illustrate – among other - the potential to reveal the existence of mineral resources at depth in mature mining fields, thus extending their life by more years. The training material also draws extensively from feedback collected from numerous participants who attended training courses and workshops organized as part of the ProMine project.

The authors aspire that the training material will drive a better communication among present practitioners and the next generation of students. Ultimately this should lead to more sustainable mining by reducing the footprint and thus improving the image of mining. To this effect, two short films demonstrating 3D model issues and 4D restoration techniques are also produced.

European Commission part funded Project ProMine’s web based GIS is now publically available through the ProMine website.

The first Pan-European Mineral Deposit (MD) Database has just been completed by a team of European experts, lead by Daniel Cassard, from BRGM, France, as part of the ProMine project, coordinated by GTK in Finland. The publically available interactive database allows the intelligent exploitation of Europe’s mineral resources, while also acting as an effective new land use management tool for Europe.

The database was built using data supplied by eight ProMine partner institutes, spread across seven European countries, with additional inputs from Bulgaria, FYROM and Romania. The web based Geographic Information System (GIS) contains 12,979 records (mines, deposits, occurrences or showings) and covers 34 countries in Europe. The GIS is made up of 12 mineral deposit layers, two geological layers, one geographical layer and four geophysical layers. A 3D geological subsurface model layer is provided by the Team developing 4D models of selected mineralized belts in Europe.

The MD Database is now accessible to the public through the ProMine website. Online functionalities enable a user, among others, to ‘find’ a deposit, ‘identify’ its features, add WMS (Web Map Service) layers, and print the outcome as maps. Maps issued from the database include the ‘Main Mineral Deposits of Europe’ and the ‘Critical Raw Materials in Europe’. These show the 14 most critical commodities in Europe identified in the frame of the Raw Material Initiative of the European Commission. An earlier version of the map was already promoted by the EC Vice-President A. Tajani in the frame of the Raw Material Initiative, and also used for the preparation of a Euromines – DG Trade meeting.

The news of this database had already triggered a request by the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, The Netherlands, to be used to complement Europe’s Strategic Energy Technology Plan. This Plan comprises an inventory of the metal requirements for six high priority energy technologies (e.g. wind, solar, nuclear etc.) in order to assess whether metal supply in Europe is adequate and available. This assessment of Europe’s ‘green’ commodities together with the identified critical raw materials is essential to help understand Europe’s supplies of mineral resources for the future. The ProMine team is now enhancing the MD database to allow potential and predictability assessment studies of metalliferous and non-metalliferous resources to be available in the near future; another first for Europe. This achievement will further allow an assessment of Europe’s strategic mineral reserves for potential economic capacity, thus permitting more precise exploration and at a greater depth.

It is envisaged that the Pan-European Mineral Deposit Database as a new tool on the market, will contribute effectively towards increasing Europe’s economic growth and global competitiveness.

ProMine is part-financed by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The four year project began in 2009 and is a collaboration between industry and research focused on the development of nano-particle products from new mineral resources in Europe. The project works in tandem with the philosophies from the EC’s Raw Material Initiative that is highlighting the need for the increase in the responsible exploration of European Raw Materials. As a project ProMine is stimulating the extractive industries in Europe to decrease Europe’s dependency and trade deficit on foreign raw material imports.

‘Main Mineral Deposits of Europe Map’, produced from the MD Database. Open

‘Critical Raw Materials in Europe Map’, produced from the MD Database. Open

ProMine researchers and mineral industry representatives will gather in Seville, Spain in November to compare results and give go-aheads on development of final products. Launched in 2009 under the EU’s 7th Framework Programme for Science and Technology on the theme “Nanosciences, nanotechnologies, materials and new production technologies,” ProMine is coordinated by GTK. It involves visualization of critical resources in Europe, new nanoproducts and their production, as well as life-cycle planning of mines, use of nanoproducts in remediation of environmental damage and capture of secondary metals.

ProMine, surveying the mineral resources of Europe, has received international recognition for its operating methods. The objective is to seek solutions to replace the import of metals and utilisable minerals in Europe.

What use industrial waste and mine water can have, how to process them into innovative products and how to implement the principles of sustainable development in the mining industry – these were the topics discussed at the meeting dedicated to the European Union’s Project ProMine, with KGHM Ecoren being the organiser of the event.

ProMine Project Informational Day was organised at the seat of Ecoren on Friday, 10 September. The Project is an initiative of the European Commission with the goal to introduce into the industry innovative solutions that come from nanotechnologies as well as mineral raw material based products. Vice President of KGHM Ecoren Edyta Kozieł formally opened the meeting in which participated the members of the Consortium from Poland and abroad as well as the representatives of local self-governments and enterprises associated with KGHM Polska Miedź.

The first part of the day was dedicated to presenting the ProMine concept. According to Witold Kurylak from the Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals, the European Union allocated EUR 54 billions for the entire support programme (scheduled for 2007 – 2013) designed to promote research that is important for Europe, including a budget of over EUR 17 million for the ProMine Project alone. Within the framework of the Project, 4D geological models are being created, showing the changes of mineral resources in Europe; likewise ecologically efficient technologies are being developed to obtain new products which are directly based on mineral raw materials. The final stage of the Project will include the economic analysis of the products to be implemented and the description of the effects the developed technologies will have on the environment. The entire programme will be conducted until April 2013.

As ProMine is an international project, there were also guests from abroad during the Informational Day; Dirk De Ketelaere from a Maltese company IRMCO spoke about the creation of an exchange information platform within the ProMine framework whereas Bertil Grundelt, representing Kemakta Konsult from Sweden, talked about model units dealing with specific projects and technologies. Ecoren is one of such model units conducting research on new products connected with rhenium. Moreover, within the framework of the Project, the company is participating in the research on new nanoproducts: spherical rhenium powderand metal powders containing, apart from rhenium, nickel, cobalt and iron.

“We expect that spherical rhenium powder will be used in aviation and aerospace industry. When compared to metallic rhenium, it will have lower porosity, higher density, durability, and it will be of purer grade,]]>

ProMine is a groundbreaking research and development project, funded largely by the EU under the Seventh Framework Programme. The project targets the revitalization of the mining industry and the fostering of new growth across the EU through the development of new nano-particle products from new European mineral resources. To achieve its aims ProMine brings together a consortium of 27 partners, from France, Germany, Greece, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and is coordinated by the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK). ‘Our meeting in Thessaloniki is expected to bring our vision another step closer to reality’ says Prof. Gabor Gaál, Project Technical Coordinator of GTK,adding ‘we are looking at economic benefits topping 100 billion Euros, with new resources and processes being partnered by new product development, right through to end user testing’.

Since its launch in May 2009, the highly inter-disciplinary expertise within the consortium has been mobilized around five prospective new highly added value products in four mineral belts. In Greece, the Stratoni Operation has been selected as a ProMine model site for new nano-silica particle products. The process is based on addition of olivine to acid mine waters which neutralises industrial waste, whilst at the same time precipitates high purity nano-particles of silica which can be used in the production of high performance concretes. The process has been demonstrated on a laboratory scale and will be up-scaled to pilot scale during the project.

Based on current reserve estimates, the Stratoni area has a mine life of six years. ‘However, there is good potential to expand the resource and reserve base’ says Emmy Gazea from Hellas Gold SA which operates the Stratoni mines, adding ‘we are looking forward to contribute to the development within ProMine of a new, cutting edge web-based data management tool that will allow 3D and 4D visualization of Europe’s mineral resources’. The enthusiasm to achieve the first ever predictive 4D modelling to yield new discoveries of Europe’s deep mineral resources is shared by Nikolaos Arvanitidis from the Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration, IGME, host of the Thessaloniki Meeting. He adds ‘The Greek partners in ProMine are equally looking forward to the results of a rigorous sustainability assessment to ensure that the environmental footprint will be reduced as much as possible’. ‘It is essential that all local stakeholders are brought up to date on the new prospects we will be discussing at this meeting’ adds Emmy Gazea, ‘and we therefore look forward to invite all stakeholders to a series of workshops which are planned over the duration of the project’.

Anna Spiteri from Integrated Resources Management Company Ltd in Malta who is responsible to organize ‘dialogue workshops’ in each of the ProMine Model sites, explains that the active involvement of the mining and manufacturing industry, decision makers, such as water managers, and land use planners, as well as the local community represented by the various NGOs and local government, will contribute towards finding solutions to existing problems and should lead to new employment opportunities and a better quality of life.

The European Commission has chosen the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) to coordinate the consortium of ProMine with total budget of €18 million. ProMine seeks alternatives for imports of metals and minerals to Europe, which are worth €11 billion annually. So far, ProMine is the largest integrating project under the EU’s 7th Framework Programme in nanotechnology, based on the co-operation of 27 partners in 11 countries over a period of four years. In addition to Finland, the project has participants from Sweden, Poland, Greece, Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany, Malta, France, Spain and Great Britain. The ProMine integrating project consists of six separate work packages.